our \$VERSION = '2.3.0' is now the single source of truth for the release
series. The build.yml extracts it with a perl one-liner (no module load,
no stubs needed) and uses it as BASE_VERSION for alpha/beta channel builds.
Git tags remain the release trigger: pushing an exact vX.Y.Z tag publishes
to the stable Cloudsmith channel. A mismatch warning fires if the tag
version and \$VERSION disagree, catching forgotten version bumps.
The v2.3.0-pre anchor tag approach is superseded by this; the anchor tag
can stay in history as a breadcrumb but \$VERSION is now what drives builds.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
7fa3ff9c91